


Can Opener

by gzifoyd



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-30
Updated: 2016-06-30
Packaged: 2018-07-19 05:39:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7347355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gzifoyd/pseuds/gzifoyd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After picking up a mysterious signal, Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl and Steven go to investigate. What they find is not exactly what they expected...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Can Opener

“Amethyst, have you seen our can opener?”  
  
“Nah, Steven. Weren’t you the last one to use it?”  
  
“I dunno. Someone else might have used it. Peridot maybe? Oh well, guess this creamed corn will have to wait.” Slightly disappointed, Steven carefully replaced the can on the shelf. Looking for something else to eat, he finally decided on the leftover pizza in the fridge. He was surprised Amethyst hadn’t already eaten the whole box. Staring at the slices rotating in the microwave, Steven wondered where the can opener could have gone. The thought left his mind as he pulled out the now-warm pizza and sat down.  
  
The pizza was OK, about as good as reheated pizza can be. Just as he was about to finish off the last slice, Garnet stepped out of the temple door. “Steven, Amethyst; Pearl and I picked up an unusual energy signature near one of the warp pads. Let’s go check it out.” “A mission!” Steven gasped, stars in his eyes. “Maybe that’s where the can opener got to!” “Maybe so,” replied Garnet, as Pearl stepped out of her room. “Oh, Steven! Are you ready to go?” “Almost,” mumbled Steven through a half-full mouth of lukewarm pizza. “Here, buddy. Let me help you out,” said Amethyst as she stuffed the remainder of Steven’s pizza into her mouth. “Hey, shouldn’t Peridot or Lapis be coming?” Steven asked. Garnet replied, “They’re not ready for a mission just yet. Maybe once they can get along better.” She gave Steven a smile and stepped onto the warp pad.  
  
A short warp later, Steven and the Gems found themselves in a dense forest, surrounded by trees. “This way,” Garnet said, walking off into the undergrowth. It was slow going, and more than once Steven stumbled over a root or bramble patch. It was on one such occasion that he found a peculiar object on the ground. Picking it up, it seemed to be a broken piece of…stone? Metal? Steven wasn’t sure. Pocketing the fragment, he continued on. Soon, he noticed more fragments, which soon littered the ground, and seemed to be getting more numerous as the Gems pushed forwards.  
  
Eventually, they reached a clearing. Stumbling into the light, Steven found the Gems staring at a massive structure in the very center of the clearing. It was round and flat, like a saucer, and had three legs that extended out at odd angles. Steven recognized it almost immediately as one of the Gem ships used during the colonization of Earth, almost exactly like the one Peridot had once trapped them in. This one was in a sorry state; a large hole had been blasted into the side of the ship, and it was wedged into the ground at a weird angle. The Gems cautiously approached the crashed ship, scanning for any potential dangers. Steven recognized the fragments on the ground as the same material the ship was made out of. Suddenly, all four stopped. Steven and Amethyst stood slack-jawed, Garnet gave the barest hint of a frown, while Pearl put her hand to her mouth in shock. Engraved on the door to the ship was a pink rose, intricately carved with detailed petals, stems, and thorns arranged in a spiral pattern. “This…must have been one of Rose’s ships…during the rebellion…” Pearl stammered. “I thought they were all completely destroyed!” “Not this one,” Garnet said quietly. “I don’t think the signal’s coming from here, but lets check it out anyway.”  
  
Approaching the door, Garnet motioned Steven forward. Pressing his palm to the hand-shaped interface, Steven felt his gem tingle, then watched as the door slowly slid open, surprisingly quiet for such an old relic. Pearl was right behind Steven, using her gem to light up the dark room as they entered. The first thing that stood out to them was the color. It was a warm pink, comforting and inviting. The second thing they noticed was the holes. Large rectangular sections of the walls had been carefully removed, some as tall as fifteen feet. The cuts were completely smooth and straight, as if someone had polished them, yet they were scattered haphazardly around the ship without apparent rhyme or reason. “What…could have done this?” Pearl muttered. “I don’t know, but it doesn’t look like they’re here anymore,” Garnet replied. “Come on, let’s take a look around.” The layout of the ship was very similar to the first one Steven had encountered, and a quick search of the ship revealed no information about the source of the signal. After meeting back up, the Gems decided to search the surrounding woods to see if the source was nearby. Splitting up, Pearl and Garnet decided to search individually while Steven and Amethyst searched together.

…

“Meh, I’m bored now,” Amethyst complained after an hour of fruitless searching. “Hey Steven, lets head back to that ship. Maybe Pearl or Garnet’s back with something.” Agreeing and turning to head back, Steven suddenly saw something gray flit through the trees. “Shhhhh! I think I saw something” Steven put his finger to his lips and motioned for Amethyst to be quiet, which she did begrudgingly. Sneaking as carefully as he could, Steven walked over to where he saw the object. There it was again! This time, Steven didn’t take his eyes off it as he and Amethyst less-than-carefully approached it. Peeking through a bush, Steven could see the object was a floating hand! He looked quizzically at Amethyst, who shrugged. The hand seemed not to notice them as it…scanned the ground? It was just a hand, but it was clearly looking for something, the way the fingers swept back and forth, examining the ground below it.  
  
Suddenly, it appeared to have found what it was searching for, and picked up a medium sized rock. Just as suddenly, Steven pounced on the hand and grabbed it. The hand offered no resistance, but it held onto its cargo tightly.  
  
“Hey Amethyst, do you have any idea what this is?”  
  
“No idea, bro. This is new to me.”  
  
“I think we should find Garnet and Pearl.”  
  
“Eh, Ok.”  
  
As they headed back, Steven turned and examined the hand. It was a medium gray, with long dexterous fingers. It was noticeably bigger than Steven’s hands, but smaller than Garnet’s gauntlets. The hand’s skin, upon closer examination, was patterned with lots of tiny parallel lines, and it twitched gently in Steven’s grip. Trying to get a better look at the stone it held, Steven found the hand did not want to relinquish it. After struggling a while, Steven gave up.  
  
Heading back to the crashed ship, they found Garnet and Pearl already waiting for them. “Garnet! Pearl! Look what we found!” Steven exclaimed, showing them the hand. Garnet examined the hand carefully, then pried out the stone from its grip. Garnet passed the now visibly struggling hand to Amethyst, looked at the stone, and handed it to Pearl. “I think you might want to see this.” Pearl turned the stone over and nearly dropped it. The broken stone fragment had a part of Rose’s symbol engraved on it. The hand was grasping furiously for the stone; Amethyst could barely hold onto it. “What did that…thing…want with this?” Pearl muttered. “I don’t know,” said Garnet, “But it certainly wants it back.” “Well, it’s probably going to take it somewhere,” Steven said, “Maybe we should follow it.” “Steven,” Pearl chided, “Remember the last time we followed a mysterious object of unknown origin to see what it would do?” “Yeah!” Steven said. “We ended up meeting Peridot! And that turned out pretty good, didn’t it?” “I think Steven’s right on this one,” Garnet said. “Lets follow it. Amethyst, tie your whip to it so we don’t lose it.”  
  
“Hey guys,” Amethyst said, turning the hand so the palm faced the group. “I think you’d better take a look at this.” The hand’s palm had a large fissure running along it, dark and jagged. It continued pathetically reaching for the stone, despite Amethysts’ grip. Garnet’s frown deepened imperceptibly, Steven smile faded, and Pearl’s nervous expression only worsened. “Garnet, are you still sure this is a good idea?” “Not as good as before, but right now it’s really our only option.”  
  
Clutching the rock, the hand drifted through the forest, Amethyst’s whip tied around its midsection. It seemed like forever, but eventually the hand came to a small structure. It appeared to be made out of the sections of ship that had been removed. The four stopped as the hand tugged insistently on its leash toward the entrance. Steven glanced up at Garnet, who nodded at him, then motioned for Amethyst to release the hand. It floated inside the structure and disappeared. Steven peeked carefully through the door, then stepped inside when he saw it was empty. Garnet followed, using one of her gems as a spotlight. Another door led to a back room, and the floor was littered with stones, some large, some small. Steven could see that several had pieces of Rose’s sigil on them. A makeshift table was propped up in one corner, with bits of machinery and circuitry scattered across it. “It looks like this is where the signal came from,” said Garnet, as Pearl and Amethyst walked in behind them. “Well,” said Pearl, “it looks like whatever did this isn’t here anymore, so we probably should-“ Pearl stopped suddenly as a figure appeared from the back room. 

…

The new figure was humanoid, wearing a thick faded gray apron that extended down well past their knees, and came up to form a high collar that completely encircled their neck and obscured the bottom half of their round dome-like head. Their knee-lenth gray arms and stocky legs were patterned with thin grooves that glowed a dull red in the dim light, as did their perfectly circular goggle-like eyes that peeked over the high collar, patterned with a light six-pointed asterisk. A few hands, identical to the one the gems had been following, floated behind it. Despite the emotionless eyes, the figure appeared just as startled as everyone else, and before the gems could react, the figure spun around with a muffled cry of alarm and ran away into the back room. Steven saw a glint of red on its right hand as it turned, and heard a faint whooshing noise, then a thud. The gems burst into the back room to find a giant hole cut into the wall of the shack, through which the figure could be seen stumbling through the undergrowth. The Crystal Gems quickly caught up to the unknown gem, who continued forward unheeding. With a chiming sound, Pearl pulled out two spears and leapt at the gem. “Pearl, wait!” Garnet shouted, but Pearl was already mid-air, launching one of her spears at the gem. The spear bounced off the gem’s body with the sound of ringing metal. The gem spun around surprisingly quickly, arm extended. As it turned to face Pearl, the air around its hand rippled and glowed. The red gem in its palm glowed brightly, and a thin jet of light shot out several feet as it swung towards its assailant. Pearl barely had time to register what was about to happen before she felt something wrap around her ankle and jerk her downwards into the ground. Pearl felt the beam narrowly miss the top of her head, then looked down to see Amethyst’s whip wrapped around her leg. She turned back towards the gem, but it had run off further into the woods. As the Crystal Gems continued their pursuit, the trees behind Pearl slowly toppled over, cut cleanly in half.  
  
The brief chase ended when the gem ran smack into a tree while looking back at its pursuers. Stumbling around before regaining its sense of direction, it stopped to stare at the Gems in formation directly in front of it. Pearl and Amethyst had their weapons ready, and Garnet’s gauntlets hummed as she summoned them and clinked them together. Steven watched the figure sympathetically, but he knew if it was anything like the other corrupted gems, it was better off poofed. Suddenly, without warning, the gem sidestepped as a giant fist materialized behind it and flew towards the Crystal Gems. The four all dodged in different directions; Pearl to the right, Steven and Amethyst to the left, and Garnet straight over to land right in front of the gem. The gem extended its hand again and shot a beam of energy towards Garnet, who ducked under it and dashed forward. The gem pressed two fingers to its forearm and blasted a much bigger beam at Garnet, who barely managed to block the beam with her gauntlets. Pearl and Amethyst picked themselves up and grimaced as the large fist split into multiple smaller hands to attack them. Pearl stabbed a few, poofing them to smoke, before one got a punch in that sent her staggering. Amethyst grinned as her own now-much-larger fists began knocking away any fist that tried to get close. Steven summoned his shield, and ran towards Garnet, who was still deflecting the gem’s beam with her gauntlets.  
  
Garnet and the gem appeared to be locked in a stalemate when suddenly, the gem’s beam sputtered and died out. The gem frustratedly whacked her arm with her other hand, then raised to fire again. As their gem glowed, Steven leapt between the two, shield raised. The beam hit Steven’s shield, bounced off it, and hit the gem square in the chest. The gem was sent flying into a tree with a sound like a ringing gong, and collapsed as all the hands spasmed and vanished. The Crystal gems reformed their formation as the now-smoking gem staggered onto its feet and raised its hand again. Steven could now clearly see the rectangular, dark-red gemstone embedded in the gem’s palm. Despite the gem’s best efforts, nothing happened, except for a few sparks that flew out of the deep crack that ran through the middle of the gemstone. The gem barely had time to register what happened before Pearl’s spear embedded itself between its collar and helmet. The gem dropped to its knees before Garnet and Amethyst grabbed the spear and wrenched it downwards, trying to pry the dark-gray helmet off. With the sound of screeching metal, the dome-like helmet snapped upwards and the gem exploded into clouds. The fractured gem clinked to the ground. Steven walked over to it and picked it up delicately. 

…

Steven looked down at the wine-red gem he held in his hands. It was a rounded rectangular prism with lots of thin striations running along it. The Crystal Gems were walking back to the warp pad. “I could heal them. Do you think they’ll be friendly if I do?” Steven asked. “I don’t know,” replied Garnet. “Remember when you helped Lapis? She was grateful that you healed her, though she wasn’t on the best of terms with the rest of us.” “You should just bubble it right now.” Pearl interjected. “It obviously had an unhealthy obsession with Rose, and I don’t think healing it would help it any.” “Aw come on Pearl,” Amethyst said, “I’m sure they’ll be friendly! Besides, what’s the worst that could happen? If it’s hostile, we’ll just poof it again. We can take it!” “Well if you do heal it,” Pearl dismissively replied, “Make sure it’s nowhere near the house and all three of us are present.” Unsure, Steven looked at Garnet. “The decision is up to you,” she responded, “Whatever you decide, we’ll go along with it.”  
  
Reaching a clearing, Steven nodded at Garnet. The group stopped, and Steven took a few steps forward. He licked his hand and slapped it against the broken gemstone. After a few seconds, the gem began to glow as the crack filled in, then floated out of Steven’s hands. Red light spilled out of the gem for a second before a gray humanoid figure materialized around it, the gemstone in its right palm. As the crack disappeared, red color began to replace the gray. The light peaked as the figure’s features filled in, then died as the figure collapsed to its knees. Standing up, the gem looked down at her hands, then around until she saw the Crystal Gems. Her overall appearance was now much more humanoid; the faded apron had become a red-orange jumper dress that ended just below her knees, the smooth helmet was now a dark-colored curly afro, her skin was a medium red, and her eyes were now visible behind a pair of orange-tinted goggles. A few hands, now yellow-orange, appeared behind her and flitted around her head. She seemed more frightened than aggressive, and seemed visibly relieved when she saw the Crystal Gems were cautious instead of threatening. Steven smiled and walked right up to her, hand extended “Hi! I’m Steven! What’s your name?” “I-I-I…” The gem stammered, “My name’s Rutile…but…how did you heal me? I though only Rose Quartz could…” She stopped as Steven grinned and pulled up his shirt, exposing Rose’s pink gem. “Rose’s my mom, and I’ve got her gem right here, as well as most of her powers. It’s kind of a long story…”  
  
Garnet approached Rutile. “So you fought on Rose’s side during the rebellion?” Rutile nodded at the taller gem. “I was initially just a maintenance worker on the Earth colony, until I joined the rebellion. I was stationed on that ship and my gem must have broken when it crashed.” “Well, we’ve got a lot of catching up to do. I’ll tell you more back at the temple, but the short answer is, we won.” Motioning towards the warp pad, Garnet said, “Come on, let’s go home.”

…

“…and that’s why my mom’s gem is my belly button!” Steven exclaimed. Back at the house, Steven was telling Rutile all about himself. “I lived with my dad at first, while we built this house! After it was finished, I moved here.” “It’s a very nice house,” Rutile commented, observing the structure. “Stable, little chance of structural failure. Made out of organic material though, that might impact its long-term survivability.” “Well,” Steven responded, “It’s survived everything we’ve thrown at it since I’ve lived here. Anyway, now that I’ve told you all about myself, what’s your story?” Rutile smiled nervously as Steven looked expectantly at her. “I was grown on one of the colonies as a maintenance worker.” Rutile began. “I was just another run-of-the-mill rutile, just like all the others. We’re responsible for constructing most of the structures on new colonies and as such, rutiles are designed to function in some pretty hostile environments. What you saw at first was my hazardous environment mode; I must’ve gotten stuck in it when my gem was damaged. Anyway, rutiles aren’t exactly up there in the gem hierarchy, and we’re often bossed around by our superiors. I initially defected to the rebellion to get away from all that, but eventually I began to understand why Rose began her rebellion. Earth is just so fascinating!” “Cool!” Steven exclaimed. “What about the hands? What are those for?” “Oh those?” Rutile said, as a hand appeared behind her and floated lazily around her shoulder, “Well, they’re supposed to be for handling heavy objects and hazardous materials, but I mainly use them for convenience now.” “And the laser?” “It’s not a laser! It’s a focused plasma beam that – actually, nevermind. It’s for cutting and welding things, which came in handy quite a bit during the rebellion. Once the fighting started, however, I was working on a more…offensive…use for it, which you saw.” Rutile held up her hand as a few sparks danced around her palm. “That’s so cool!” exclaimed Steven. “Yeah,” Rutile smiled, “I guess it is.” “Hey, I have an idea – wait here a second!” Steven rushed off to the kitchen, where he pulled something out of a cupboard and ran back towards Rutile. Halfway there he threw it into the air, and a hand caught it as it came down. “Can you open this? We lost our can opener, and I’m kinda hungry after that story.” “Sure! This seems to be made out of thin metal, seems easy enough.” The sparks converged on Rutile’s pointer finger, which she ran around the rim of the can, popping it off effortlessly. She handed the opened can to a beaming Steven. “Even though I didn’t find our can opener, I did find a new friend!”

**Author's Note:**

> So this is my first shot at an SU story! Let me know what you thought; I appreciate feedback! I'm currently playing around with music for the story, I'll probably post that soon. Thanks for reading!


End file.
